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Steroids: Hormones
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Steroids are the lipids which are characterized by the carbon frame with main four compound rings. Different steroids differ from functional groups which are attached to these rings. Millions of diverse steroids are identified in the animals and plants. The most important function of the steroids in living beings is as hormones. In humans the common kind of steroids are the steroid hormones, cholesterol and metabolites.
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Steroids are a class of compounds that includes cholesterol, corticosteroids, and sex hormones. Cholesterol adds rigidity to cell membranes, and plays an important role in formation of steroid hormone, bile acids, and Vitamin D.
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Steroids can cause liver disorders, stunted growth in children and teenagers, personality changes, ulcerous acne and high cholesterol levels. Because steroids are made from synthetically-produced testosterone, which imitates human sex hormones, they can ... cause wasting of the testicles, impotence and negative changes in sexuality. Sometimes, when steroids are used illegally, they are injected with needles. Sharing these needles can also pass on the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, HIV, that causes the deadly disease AIDS.
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These C27 steroids have in common a 7-en-6-one chromophore, sometimes a methyl group at C-24 and several hydroxyl groups increasing their polarity. The structure of ecdysone is given below as an example of these steroids. That structure was first elucidated from a hormonal fraction extracted from silk worm pupae (Karlson P, Naturwissenschaften 1966, 53, 445).
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The many different steroids include certain alcohols (sterols), bile acids, hormones, plant compounds, and the poisons found in the skin of some toads. Various sterols found in the skin of human beings are transformed into vitamin D when they are exposed to the ultraviolet rays of the Sun. Cholesterol, a major contributor to arteriosclerosis, is a sterol.
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Corticosteroids or glucocorticoids, often just called "steroids", are drugs closely related to cortisol, a hormone which is naturally produced in the adrenal cortex (the outer layer of the adrenal gland). Corticosteroids act on the immune system by blocking the production of substances that trigger allergic and inflammatory actions, such as prostaglandins.
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